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THE TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” 
RUSSELL 


By W. T. CONNER 


“A System of Christian Doctrine.” 
“The Resurrection of Jesus” 
“The Teachings of Mrs. Eddy ” 


THE TEACHINGS OF > 


“PASTOR” RUSSELL 


By 
W. T. CONNER 


Professor of Systematic Theology in the 


Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary 
FORT WORTH, TEXAS 


NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 
SUNDAY SCHOOL BOARD 


OF THE 
SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION 


Copyright 1926 
Sunday School Board 
Southern Baptist Convention 
Nashville, Tenn. 


Printed in the United States of America 


THE TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” 
RUSSELL 





give anything like an adequate statement or 
discussion of his teachings. My main aim 
will be to state what “Pastor” Russell taught, 
and some space will be given to criticism. His 
teachings are so absurd and so contrary to 
commonly accepted Christian principles that 
a statement of what he taught is enough. To 
state his teaching is to refute it. 

Mr. Russell put out six good-sized volumes 
on “Millennial Dawn” or “Studies in the Scrip- 
tures.” In the first volume he gives a clear 
general outline of his scheme. My interpreta- 
tion is based mainly on a study of that vol- 
ume, and the references in parenthesis are to 
the pages of that volume, unless otherwise 
specified. 


[5] 


6 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’’ RUSSELL 


1. “Plan of the Ages.” 


Perhaps the best place to begin a considera- 
tion of the doctrines of Russellism is with Mr. 
Russell’s “Plan of the Ages.” This idea of 
dispensations, or “‘plan of the ages,” forms 
the groundwork of Mr. Russell’s whole 
scheme of doctrine. 

According to Mr. Russell there are three 
great ages or dispensations in the history of the 
world: from creation to the flood, under the 
administration of angels; from the flood to the 
second.coming of Christ, under the limited 
control of Satan; the world to come, under di- 
vine administration, the kingdom of God. He 
claitns that his scheme is pre-eminently scrip- 


“ tural. 


He makes the governing consideration in his 
interpretation of scripture his own arbitrary 
‘‘plan of the ages,” which he claims to be di- 
vine. Instead of getting this “plan of the 
ages’ out of the Bible he arbitrarily imposes 
it on the Bible, and interprets the scriptures 
to fit his “plan of the ages.” He claims that 
in understanding any passage of scripture the 
first and primary thing is to find out the age 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL ¥ 


or dispensation to which it refers. This, he 
says, is the only thing that will enable us to 
interpret the Bible in harmony with itself. 

Of course, there is some truth in this idea 
of dispensations. Revelation is progressive. 
There is a progressive unfolding of God’s plan, 
and that plan is unitary. But it is also true 
that there are great principles underlying 
God’s dealings with man in every age of the 
world. Instead of one dispensation displac-,/ 
ing another in the arbitrary way represented 
by Mr. Russell, it is rather true that one dis- 
pensation takes up into itself the permanent 
moral and spiritual values and principles of 
the preceding. Thus we have in the Bible the 
general divisions of the Old and New Testa- 
ments. But even in regard to these we are 
warned against making too sharp a distinction. 
Jesus and Paul (as well as other New Testa- 
ment writers) give us to understand that the 
Old Testament is fulfilled in the New and the 
New is the completion of the Old. 

Certainly if any principle is to be made our 
governing idea in the interpretation of the 
Bible, and of the whole course of human 


8 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 


history as the working out of God’s plan for 
the human race, then we ought by all 
means to examine that principle with great 
Care, 101) SCEI ALi itaniSi) ar SOLNOs oDrInciOle. 
About the only argument that Mr. Russell 
offers for his “plan of the ages’ is that it 
harmonizes the scriptures. But as a matter 
of fact when we examine this principle and 
its application to the Bible, we find that it 
will not stand the test. As applied to the Bible, 
instead of giving the beautiful unity and har- 
mony that Mr. Russell claims it will give, it 
really tears the Bible to shreds and leaves this 
book more of a “‘crazy-quilt” affair than does 
any of the schemes of radical criticism. It 
makes the Bible a jumble of hopeless contra- 
dictions and brings chaos instead of order out 
of its teachings. 

To illustrate Mr. Russell’s method of inter- 
preting scripture with reference to the “‘plan 
of the ages,” we might take the doctrines of 
election and freedom. Mr. Russell claims that 
this is the age of election—the present gospel 
age. All the scriptures that speak of election 
then are to be interpreted as referring to this 


TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 9 


age, while all those passages that refer to a 
universal invitation are to be referred to the 
_ coming kingdom, or millennial age. He pro- 
ceeds upon the assumption that election is in- 
consistent with a universal gospel invitation. 
Revelation 22: 17, for instance, has no ref- 
erence to the present gospel age. Only in the 
millennial age will the Spirit and the bride say 
come, and whosoever will may respond to the 
call. In a similar way he disposes of all pas- 
sages that give a universal significance to the 
saving work) of Christ, or a universal sway to 
his reign. Thus Mr. Russell flatly contradicts 
the common Christian conviction that we are - 
now under obligation to give the gospel to all 
men. His interpretation takes all meaning for 
us out of Christ’s command to preach the gos- 
pel to every creature. If Mr. Russell is right on 
this point, then practically the whole Chris- 
tian world is wrong and our sense of obliga- 
tion to carry the good news of salvation to all 
men is only an illusion. 


2. The Present Versus the Coming Age. 


One of the most important applications of 
this principle of dispensation that Mr. 


10 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 


Russell makes is in regard to the present gospel 
age aS compared with the coming millennial 
age. The first age from creation to the flood 
is negligible, as far as his scheme of doctrine 
is concerned. It is put in only to fill out. (It 
might be interesting to note that Mr. Russell’s 
whole scheme is based on Usher’s chronology. 
He presupposes that the world is only 6,000 
years old. He seems to think that there is no 
question about this.) 

It is important to note that Mr. Russell’s 
chief points of division of human history are 
at the flood and at the second coming of Christ. 
The first coming of Christ was an event of 
secondary importance as compared with these. 
His second dispensation in the world’s his- 
tory reaches from the flood to the second com- 
ing of Christ. This he divides into three sec- 
ondary ages—the patriarchal age, reaching 
from the flood to the time of Moses; the Jewish 
age, reaching from Moses to the time of Christ; 
and the gospel age, reaching from the coming 
of Christ to the second coming of Christ. Ac- 
cording to this either the flood or the second 
coming of Christ is an event of greater mean- 


TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’ RUSSELL 11 


ing for mankind than was the first coming of 
Christ. If Mr. Russell was right in regard to 
this, then the Christian world has been wrong 
in thinking that the coming of Christ with the 
establishment of Christianity was the central 
event of human history. In that case we ought 
to count time from the flood rather than from 
the birth of Christ. 

Mr. Russell |then makes a great difference 
between the Pig gospel age and the coming 
millennial age! The gospel age is the age of 
the church. The millennial age is the time of 
the kingdom./ The kingdom has not yet been 
established. / (Mr. Russell does in places speak 
as if the kingdom had been established in a 
preparatory way. But in most places he speaks 
as if the kingdom had not been initiated in any 
sense.) He holds that the kingdom will not 
be set up until the return of Christ. Accord- 
ingly in Mr. Russell’s scheme the first coming 
of Christ was rather a subordinate event. It 
divided the Jewish age from the gospel or 
Christian age, but both of these belong to this 
“present evil world,” while the second coming 
of Christ will usher in an entirely new dispen- 
Sation. 


12 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’’ RUSSELL 


The purpose of the present gospel age he 
says is not to save the world, nor even to preach 
the gospel to all men with a view of giving 
them an opportunity of salvation. Mr. Rus- 
sell accepts the idea that there can be no sal- 
vation apart from hearing and believing the 
gospel. And he argues as if orthodox theology 
taught that all except adult believers were eter- 
nally lost. So he says that if God’s purpose 
is to save the world, or even to give all men an 
opportunity to be saved, then the present age is 
a failure. The purpose, he says, of the present 
gospel age is to call out the elect few, “‘the lit- 
tle flock,” “‘the church,” “the bride of Christ.” 
The age of universal salvation or universal 
probation with a view to salvation will be dur- 
ing the coming age. The gospel age and the 
kingdom age, therefore, are two different ages. 
The scriptures that apply to the one must not 
be applied to the other. 

Mr. Russell undertook to tell us when the 
gospel age would end and the kingdom age be- 
gin. It is interesting to see how he gets around 
Acts 1: 7, where Jesus said to his disciples: 
“It is not for you to know the times or the 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 13 


seasons, which the Father hath put in his own 
power’ (‘appointed by his own authority,” 
Mr. Russell puts it), and Matthew 13: 32 
where Jesus said, “Of that day and hour 
knoweth no man, no, not the angels who are 
in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.”’ 
He says with reference to these passages: 
“These words of our Lord cannot be under- 
stood to mean that none but the Father will 
ever know of thé times and seasons; hence, 
it no more proves that we cannot know those 
times and seasons now, than our Lord cannot 
know them now” (Studies in the Scriptures, 
Series II, p. 18.) On the next page, he calls at- 
tention to the fact that Jesus, after saying that 
no one but the Father knew the time of his 
return to the earth, enjoined his disciples to 
watch, and argues that the fact that Jesus 
warned them to watch implies that the time 
would come when they could know about the 
times and seasons. 

Now this clever dodger of the meaning of 
scripture fails to take account of the fact that 
Jesus said: “Watch and pray; for ye know not 
when the time is’ (Mark 13: 33). Jesus 


14 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR”? RUSSELL 


based his exhortation to watch on the fact that 

we could not know; Mr. Russell argues that 
his exhortation presupposes that we can know. 
A good many other people have made the same 
mistake that Mr. Russell did; that is, they have 
thought that to watch with reference to the — 
- coming of Christ meant to be setting dates for 
his return and gazing into the sky to try to get 
the first view of him. The best way to watch 
for his return is to be faithful in the duties he 
has assigned us.so as to be ready to give ac- 
count of our stewardship. Mr. Russell had 
October, 1914, set as the time for the king- 
‘dom of God to be set up and the millennium to 
begin. He had worked out an elaborate paral- 
lel between the ending of the Jewish age (and 
beginning of the gospel age) and the end of 
the “times of the Gentiles’ (the period be- 
tween the downfall of the Jewish nation and 
the re-establishment of the Jewish power 
at the beginning of the millennium). Ac- 
cording to his scheme of dates, 6,000 years 
from Adam ended in 1872; Jesus returned 
to earth (secretly, of course) in 1874; 
the Jews began to regain power in 1878; and 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 15 


the millennium was due to begin, October, 
1914. (See Vol. 2, especially chapters IV 
and VII.) When the millennium did not be- 
gin in 1914, I think Mr. Russell gave some ex- 
planation and changed the date. But if any 
one will read the chapters above referred to, 


he will see that Mr. Ryssell has drawn such an 
elaborate parallel and ‘made such a definite ar-, 
gument for the above series of dates that for, 
one of.them to fail/shows that his whole scheme, 


has gone to wreck. Mr. Russell (writing a 


number of years before 1914, of course) prac-. 


tically says that none of these dates could vary 


one year one way or the other. Here is his | 
language: ‘‘For be it distinctly noticed that if | 


the chronology, or any of these time-periods, 
be changed but one year (italics mine), the 


beauty and force of this parallelism are de- | 


stroyed.” And now be it distinctly noticed that 
more than ten years have passed since the date 
set by Mr. Russell for the millennium to begin 
and it has not begun. According to Mr. Rus- 
sell’s own words then his parallelism between 
the end of the Jewish age and the end of the 


16 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’’ RUSSELL 


“times of the Gentiles” has broken down, his 
chronology has failed, and his whole scheme 
gone to wreck. 

And it might not be amiss here to say that 
whenever any other man makes out a program 
_ for the future course of human history to fol- — 
low (premillennial, postmillennial or any 
other kind) the unfolding events of history will 
treat his scheme of dates with as much indif- 
ference as it is now treating Mr. Russell’s. 
Of all the fool’s occupations that I know of for 
religious men, this thing of fixing dates and 
making out a course for the future events of 
history to follow is about the most useless. It 
is easy enough to make out such a course. 
All one needs is a vivid imagination, the ability 
to interpret “symbols” and juggle with dates 
and the thing can be done. And then history 
goes straight down the road and does not seem 
to notice the signs along the way inviting her 
to take the by-paths. 


3. Probation and Millennial Salvation. 


Mr. Russell argues for the necessity of a 
second probation, or, as he says, for a fair pro- 
bation for all. He holds that the vast majority 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 17 


of the human race never have a fair proba- 
tion in this life. For men to be condemned on 
such a probation as they have in this life would 
be unjust. The justice of God, therefore, as 
well as his mercy, demands that all men be re- 
stored to life and given an opportunity to ac- 
cept salvation. Calvinism, he maintains, im- 
peaches the character of God by limiting his 
goodness. According to Calvinism, he saves 
all that he wills to save, but his will is only 
to save a small portion of the race. Arminian- 
ism, Mr: Russell says, limits his power, while 
giving him credit for desiring to save all. Mr. 
Russell’s plan, he claims, gives full credit to 
both God’s power and his goodness. God has 
not designed to save all in this present age. 
Yet the scriptures clearly teach that his mercy 
is world-wide. The only way to harmonize the 
failure of God to save all, or at least give all 
an opportunity to be saved, in this age, and 
these scriptures that teach his universal love 
and mercy, is to hold that all will be restored to 
life and given then such an opportunity. That 
will be the time of the restitution of all things. 


18 | TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


God’s grace is to be testified to all in due sea- 
son. The due season for all except the little 
flock is in the coming millennial age. 

The present age is really not an age of pro- 
bation for any, Mr. Russell holds, except the 
‘little flock” (pp. 141, 145). The whole race 
had its probation in Adam at the beginning. All 
his descendants share his condemnation and 
death. We do not have an individual probation 
during this age. The race as a race had a pro- 
bation in Adam and fell. During the millennial 
age, the members of the race will have an indi- 
vidual probation. Each man’s destiny will then 
depend on his individual decision (pp. 130, 
131). No injustice is done to any member of 
the race in the fact that he is involved in the fall 
of Adam. Life is the gift of God. Sin brings 
death or the cessation of life. So if a man 
should bear the penalty of Adam’s sin, he 
would only cease to be and no harm has been 
done him, but rather a favor, in allowing him 
to live for a brief time. 

But on account of the ransom-price paid by 
Christ for Adam’s sin, all will be restored to 
life and (during the millennial age) given an 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 19 


individual probation. It is in connection with 
this probation that the advantage will be seen 
of man’s experience with sin in this life. Man 
will have learned the evil of sin and will be all 
the wiser for his experience, and therefore 
more ready to turn away from sin and live a 
life of obedience.’ Here is seen the wisdom 
of God in permitting sin. If God had created 
man and guarded him against temptation he 
never would/have known from experience what 
evil is. He might always have had a curiosity 
to know what it was like and thus would never 
have been confirmed in righteousness. But 
having experienced its evil in this life he will 
be all the more ready to turn away irom it 
when his individual probation comes in me 
millennial age. 

Mr. Russell interprets the day of juagmenit 
as being a day of testing, trial, or probation. 
It is not to be a day of twenty-four hours but 
a long period, identified by him with the mil- 
lennium. The world had its first judgment 
day when Adam was on trial. It is to have an- 
other during the coming age. Here is another 
place where Mr. Russell differs from practi- 





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20 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


cally all other Christians. Practically all others 
hold that the judgment day will be the time 
when eternal rewards or punishment will be 
meted out to men, a time of final reckoning 
with reference to the lives they had previously 
lived on earth. But here comes Mr. Russell 
and tells us that we have all been wrong about 
that. He identifies the judgment with the mil- 
lennium and the chief thing in his millennium 
is a new probation (or the first real probation, 
as he says), and this probation is to be under 
much more favorable conditions than were the 
conditions under which men formerly lived on 
earth. According to this then the day of judg- 
ment will not be a day of reckoning with refer- . 
ence to the life that men have previously lived 
on earth (the life that we are now living), but 
rather a new opportunity to correct the mis- 
takes made in that previous life, an oppor- 
tunity under much more favorable conditions 
and with a much longer time in which to make 
the corrections. 

This would imply that men will not be 
judged for the deeds of the present life. This 
would seem to follow, at least for all except 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR”? RUSSELL 21 


the “little flock.” I do not mean that he ex- 
plicitly teaches this, but it is the practical ef- 
fect of his teaching. This is seen from the 
fact that Mr. Russell lays practically no em- 
phasis on the present Jife in relation to one’s 
destiny, but makes it’rather the purpose of his 
whole scheme to a that men do not have 
sufficient light and opportunity in the present 
age to determine their eternal destiny, but will 
have such light and opportunity during the 
millennium.’ Thus, again, Mr. Russell runs 
counter to practically the whole Christian 
world in emphasizing the coming age as the op- 
portunity for salvation, while gospel preachers 
emphasize thé” “present as the opportunity to 
get ready for the future. Mr. Russell's at- 
titude as a practical matter amounts to saying 
to the sinner: “No need to worry, you will 
have the whole millennial age in which 
to see about this matter. You do not know 
enough to be responsible now anyhow. Sleep 
on; I will ring the bell in plenty of time 
for you to get up for breakfast.’’ Such teach- 
ing takes all moral zest and earnestness out 
of life. (See Mr. Russell’s disclaimer on 
p. 145.) 


22 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR”? RUSSELL 


This new probation does not mean that men 
are simply to hear the gospel and believe and 
be saved. It means that they are to be raised 
to life and put on trial for life everlasting. 
This resurrection is on the basis of the ran- 
som paid by Christ. So that the ransom does 
not secure life everlasting but only a guar- 
antee of another opportunity to win life ever- 
lasting by perfect obedience. The ransom then 
does not secure salvation, but only a chance 
to win salvation (or life everlasting). The 
condition of attaining to life everlasting dur- 
ing the millennium is the same as with Adam, 


perfect obedience. We wi ised with the 
same bodies that we hav ey 
will still be subject to deat" ach man will 


be allowed to live at least one hundred years. 
If during that time he makes progress he will 
be given further opportunity. Those who wil- 
fully sin will be finally blotted out. But all 
who make progress will be led on until they 
attain human perfection (p. 143). Evidently 
this second probation is a probation under law, 
not grace..All that grace does is to secure a sec- 
ond probation of law, in which the individual’s 








TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 23 


‘destiny will depend on his own obedience 
rather than that of his representative. He 
says: “He gave himself a ransom (correspond- 
ing price) for all, in order that he might bless 
all, and give to every man an individual trial 
for life’ (p. 150). Again, “The ‘ransom for all’ 
given by ‘the man Christ Jesus’ does not give 
or guarantee everlasting life to any man but it 
does guarantée to every man another opportun- 
ity or trial for life everlasting” (italics his) (p. 
150). In that second probation the sinner will 
have a better chance because the conditions 
will be much better (p. 153). Experience with 
sin here will also help in that probation (p. 

ae Perfect obedience will not be required 
ntil the disabilities due to the sins of this life 
are removed (p. 143). 

The idea of salvation by grace as taught by 
evangelical Christians, and found in the New 
Testament is thus seen to be foreign to Mr. 
Russell’s thoughts. Adam had a probation 
of law, success depending on perfect obedi- 
ence. This probation was a race probation. 
The probation that will come to all individ- 
ually during the millennium will also depend 






24 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR” RUSSELL 


on perfect obedience, and consequently will be 

a probation of law, not of grace. This is shown 
on page 151, where Mr. Russell says that “the 
terms or conditions of their individual trial for 
life (during the millennium, he means, of 
course) will be the same as the Adamic trial.” 
He then makes it perfectly clear that the trial is 
one of obedience under law by adding: ““The 
law of God will remain the same—it changes 
not. It will say, ‘The soul that sinneth, it shall 
die.’’’ He says again: “But the fact that men 
are ransomed from the first penalty does not 
guarantee that they may not, when individually 
tried for everlasting life, fail to render the 


obedience without which none will be per-°*«. 


mitted to live everlastingly.”’ 

Here then is what Mr. Russell teaches us: 
Adam was created and put on trial for life 
everlasting (continued existence without end) 
on condition of perfect obedience. Under this 
trial he failed. Consequently he died (ceased 
to be, was annihilated). Death came on all 
his descendants as a penalty. But on the 
ground that Christ paid the “‘ransom price” 
for them (died, was blotted out as a man), 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 25 


God will bring them back to life at the be- 
ginning of the millennium and give them an- 
other chance to win life everlasting (continued 
existence) on the same condition under which 
Adam was tried (but under more favorable 
circumstances) . ie | 

As the idea of grace is absent from Mr. Rus- | 
sell’s teaching, i is the idea of guilt in sin. 
Sin for Mr. Russell is nothing more than a 
misfortune for which one can hardly be held 
responsible. In fact, Mr. Russell succeeds in 
turning it into a blessing. Due to our experi- 
ence with it in this age, when the great millen- 
nium age comes, we will be all the wiser and 
the more ready to turn away from sin. Sin 
is thus a means of discipline and education. 
Such a view wholly disregards what the New 
Testament teaches about the enslaving power 
of sin. Mr. Russell seems to think that the 
only result of sin is physical death and that 
God can raise man back to life from this death 
and that man can then go on, having nothing 
left over from sin except the useful lessons 
learned from it. He says: “Still, God de- 
signed to permit evil, because, having this 


26 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 


remedy provided for man’s release from its 
consequences, he saw the result would be to 
lead him, through experience to a full appre- 
ciation of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and 
of the matchless brilliancy of virtue in con- 
trast with it—thus teaching him the more to 
love and honor his creator, who is the source 
and fountain of all goodness, and forever to 
shun that which brought so much woe and 
misery’ (p.124). | 

There is perhaps nothing about the teach- 
ings of Mr. Russell that shows the superficial 
character of his whole system more than this 
easy-going view of sin. Any man who has 
ever considered the teachings of the Bible in 
regard to sin and squarely faced a conscience 
quickened by the Holy Spirit will readily per- 
ceive the shallowness of his teaching on this 
point. Along with this there is no recognition 
in his teaching of the holy character of God. 
His God is rather a clever manipulator, one 
could almost say a scheming trickster, who 
moves men on a checker board so as to out- 
wit an opponent. 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 27 


Besides, Mr. Russell makes man so help- 
less in this age that the practical effect is that 
he cannot help sinning, while during the mil- 
lennial age, he will be so surrounded with good 
influences or rather restraining forces that he 
can scarcely help being saved. The essential 
elements of a moral probation, either now or 
during the millennium, are wanting in Mr. 
Russell’s ene ‘The quotations already 
given show that Mr. Russell teaches that the 
condition of attaining eternal life during the 
millennium will be the same as for Adam, 
namely, obedience to law; but the great ad- 
vantage then (so he claims) will be in the fact 
that men will have learned so much from this 
experience with sin and evil in this life and in 
these restraining external influences brought to 
bear on men. Government and society will 
then be so organized as to make it easy to do 
right. / 

As already noted, the reason mankind is 
given a second probation is that Christ paid the 
ransom-price to deliver the race from the pen- 
alty that came on it as a result of Adam’s sin. 
Mr. Russell’s doctrine of atonement is 


28 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


substitutionary and very crudely so. The sub- 
stitute was not a divine, but a human substitute. 
In answer to the question as to how one man 
could be a sufficient substitute for the whole 
race, he gives a very clever answer. Here is 
his answer: “As the entire race was in Adam 
when he was condemned, and lost life through 
him, so when Adam’s life was redeemed by this 
man Christ Jesus, a possible race in his loins 
died also, and a full satisfaction, or correspond- 
ing price, was rendered to justice for all men” 
(p. 155; cf. also p. 129). So the sinless Christ 
and the possible race that was in him died for 
the sinful Adam and the actual race that sprang 
from him. This is substitution with a ven- 
geance. 

Moreover, Christ died the same kind of 
death that was inflicted on Adam and his pos- 
terity—namely, extinction of being. (Death 
always means annihilation, or extinction of be- . 
ing, with Mr. Russell.) Asa result Adam and 
his race will simply be restored to life and put 
on a new probation (pp. 152, 154, 157, 159). 
Christ has made no provision then for indi- 
vidual disobedience under the second proba- 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 29 


- tion. The wilful sinner there then will be blotted 
out (p. 158). Christ’s ransom only delivers 
from the death that came as a penalty of 
Adam’s sin. Deliverance from that penalty 
means resurrection to the same kind of life that 
we now enjoy, with a dee opportunity to win 
life everlasting by obedience to God. 

_ A question comes to mind in regard to the 
resurrection as based on Christ's ransom- 
price. After God-has blotted men out of ex- 
istence in death, why should he want to bring 
them back into existence again in the resurrec- 
tion? Why should he not create others in 
their place? As a matter of fact that is about 
what Mr. Russell’s doctrine amounts to. He 
says in substance that God blots men out of 
existence and then brings them back into ex- 
istence in the resurrection. He does seem to 
recognize that when they come back into ex- 
istence in the resurrection they can remember 
their former experiences in this life. It is in 
this that he finds the blessing (for that is what 
it amounts to) of sin. But the question comes 
to mind as to how there could be continuity 
of conscious life in memory across the chasm 


30 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


of annihilation that Mr. Russell represents 
death to be. The only thing left for Mr. Rus- 
sell would evidently be an arbitrary appeal to 
the omnipotence of God. (It would be in ac- 
cord with Mr. Russell’s general methods of 
thought to solve the problem that way.) But 
even an omnipotent God cannot do things that 
are inconsistent with himself and the world 
he has created. God cannot make a thing to 
be and not to be at the same time. Christians 
can believe in a resurrection of the body be- 
cause they believe in the persistence of the 
soul. God can give to the spiritual personality 
that persists in death another body correspond- 
ing to its needs and the higher life that it will 
live beyond the grave. On the other hand, Mr. 
Russell reverses this relation. He makes the 
soul only a function of the bodily organism. 
Consequently when the body is dissolved in 
death, the soul ceases to be, and only comes 
back into existence when the body is raised 
again. If the principle of identity and con- 
tinuity is in the soul, then I can live beyond the 
event that men call death, and God can give me 
a new body—continuous in some sense, as 


TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’’ RUSSELL 31 


Paul shows in 1 Cor. 15 with the present body 
and yet transcending its mortality and cor- 
ruptibility. But if the principle of identity and 
continuity lies in the body; then of course death 
means annihilation and resurrection is in fact 
an impossibility. Any form of the doctrine of 
‘soul sleeping,” or unconsciousness between 
death and resurrection amounts to Mr. Rus- 
sell’s doctrine of annihilation in death and re- © 
creation in the resurrection, and is based on a 
materialistic philosophy. Such a doctrine holds 
that there can be no conscious life apart from 
a body, and it usually thinks of the resurrec- 
tion body as being a “flesh and blood” body 
very much like our present bodies; but Paul 
says that flesh and blood cannot inherit the 
kingdom of God—meaning of course the eter- 
nal kingdom of God. (For Mr. Russell’s ma- 
terialistic idea of the soul, etc., see Vol. 5, p. 
320ff, of “Studies in the Scriptures.’’) 
Accordingly Mr. Russell thinks of the bodies 
in which the great majority of men will be 
raised at the beginning of the millennium as 
bodies very much, if not entirely, like our pres- 
ent bodies, hence subject to death and decay. 


32 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


(This will be true of all except those who are 
raised as “‘spiritual’”’ beings. These will not be 
men any longer but “spirits’’ or “divine” be- 
ings. See discussion further on as to salva- 
tion.) Those who are raised with “human” — 
bodies will never attain to immortality. They 
may reach “everlasting life’’—-continued exist- 
ence as human beings. Those who become 
members of the “‘little flock”’ will become im- 
mortal as God and Christ are—dependent on 
no one outside themselves for their existence. 

Perhaps all that need be said about this is 
that the New Testament knows nothing about 
two kinds of salvation-—one the attainment of 
“human perfection” and the other kind being 
made a “‘divine’” or “spirit” being. Nor does it 
know anything about such a thing as a human 
being attaining immortality in the sense of be- 
ing independent of God. Such a thought is re- 
pugnant to any mind that believes in God as the 
supreme creator and ruler of the universe. No 
man can ever live without God. On the other 
hand, united with this dependence on God, is 
the natural immortality of all men. Men are 
made not to perish as the beast, but to live 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 33 
‘ 


forever. This belongs to the nature of man 
as a spiritual being. So that everlasting life 
in the sense of continued ae is not some- 
thing to be achieved in the millennium; it be- 
longs to man as man. (It is infteresting to note 
Mr. Russell’s difficulty with Revelations 20: 
5. It is there stated that the rest of the dead 
live not until the end of the thousand years. 
The ordinary pre-millennial theory holds, on | 
this statement, that while the righteous, or at 
least the martyrs, will be raised at the begin- 
ning of the millennium, the wicked will not be 
raised until the end of the millennium. But 
this does not fit Mr. Russell’s theory. He said 
that all the dead will be raised at the begin- 
ning of the millennium. Hence, he tells 
us, with a great show of learning, that 
the text is spurious. But I notice that 
Westcott and Hort give it as genuine. And 
since Mr. Russell confessed that he did 
not know anything about Greek, I suspect that 
these two great Greek scholars—Westcott and 
Hort—really are better authorities than Mr. 
Russell. Mr. Russell goes on to say that, even 
if this text were genuine, it would not 


34 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


contradict his view, since the wicked dead do 
not live in the full sense of the term until the 
end of the millennium. This means that, if a 
passage stands in his way, he will arbitrarily 
read it out of the text; and if he cannot do that, . 
he will even modify his fundamental conception 
of death as annihilation—anything to get over 
a difficulty. ) 


4. Salvation Offered Now. 


We come now to what might be called Mr. 
Russell’s doctrine of present salvation, though 
what he teaches on that subject is so different 
from the teaching of the New Testament that 
what he teaches can be called a doctrine of 
salvation only as a matter of accommodation. 

As already stated, he teaches that Adam was 
created a perfect man. When he fell the whole 
race fell in him, so that now all men are born 
depraved and sinful. Mr. Russell holds that 
the purpose of the present gospel age is not to 
offer salvation to everybody but rather to se- 
lect the favored few, the “bride of Christ.” 

Perhaps we can best understand his doctrine 
by looking at the steps in the selecting of this 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 35 


“bride of Christ.” The first step is that they 
shall be justified. This means that they accept 
Christ as their ransom, and then God justifies 
them or reckons them as perfect human beings. 
This puts them in God’s reckoning back where 
Adam was before the fall. It does not, how- 
ever, change their character (or nature, as Mr. 
Russell usually puts it). This comes, in his 
scheme, to be altogether a different thing, and 
follows later (if it takes place at all). 

This change of nature, as we will soon point 
out, means that they cease to be human and be- 
come “‘spiritual’”’ or “divine” beings. Evan- 
gelical Christianity has always meant a change 
of character in talking about a change of “‘na- 
ture’ in regeneration. The conception of 
character was lacking in Mr. Russell’s doctrine 
of salvation. Moral concepts cut a very small 
figure in his scheme of doctrine. That is one 
reason his whole scheme could so admirably 
be represented on a chart. Any conception of 
salvation or the Christian life that can easily 
be put down on a “chart” is mechanical and 
therefore is not Christian. Look out for the 
brother with a chart of “‘salvation” or a chart 


36 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR”? RUSSELL 


of “prophecy.” Such charts may commend 
the ingenuity of the author and his ability to 
interpret “‘symbols’’ and manipulate sacred 
“figures” but they are worth about as much 
to a Christian as the multiplication table would 
be to a mouse trying to figure out how he could 
get out of a barrel of water. 

This change of “nature’”’ begins in the next 
step after justification. It is what Mr. Russell 
calls spirit begetting. He says: “During the 
gospel age God has made a special offer to 
justified human beings, telling them that on 
certain conditions they may experience a 
change of nature, that they may cease to be 
earthly, human beings, and become heavenly, 
spiritual beings, like Christ, their Redeemer.” 
The condition of this spirit begetting is that 
they shall consecrate themselves utterly to God 
and his service. He appeals here to Romans 
12: 1 where Paul exhorts the Romans to pre- 
sent their bodies a living sacrifice to God. 
Those who do this are begotten of the spirit. 
(Mr. Russell writes the word spirit here with 
a small letter.) Those who consecrate them- 
selves to God are no longer accounted as 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL = 37 


human beings but as spiritual. He says: 
“These, from the moment of their consecration 
to God, are no longer reckoned as men, but as 
having been begotten of God through the word 
of truth—no longer human,/ but thenceforth 
spiritual children’ (p. 226). ‘‘But their spir- 
itual being is yet imperfect; they are only be- 
gotten, not yet born of the spirit. They are 
embryo spiritual children” (pp. 226, 227). 

The next step is to be born of the spirit. 
This takes place in the resurrection. This is 
conditioned upon carrying out the covenant 
entered into at the time of spirit begetting. 
Those who perform that covenant throughout 
their earthly career—keeping their body under 
(dead), keeping their own will out of sight, 
and performing only the Lord’s will—these 
will in the resurrection be “made perfect spirit- 
ual beings with bodies like unto Christ’s glor- 
ious body.” Those of the faithful who are 
living at Christ’s coming will also be trans- 
formed. (See p. 227.) These will then be 
spiritual children of God. 


38 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


The process, however, is not yet complete. 
Hear Mr. Russell: “But there is a still further 
step to be taken beyond a perfection of spiritual 


But after we are thus perfected, and made en- 
tirely like our Lord and head, we are to be as- 
sociated with him in the ‘glory’ of power and 
office—to sit with him in his throne, even as 
he, after being perfected at his resurrection, 
was exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on 
high. Thus shall we enter everlasting glory’ 
(pp. 227, 228). This is the final step in the 
glorification of the “‘little flock,” the “‘bride of 
Christ.” The “elect few” are now no longer 
human beings. They are divine beings in the 
same sense that Christ is divine. They are 
immortal in the same sense that he is and will 
reign with him during the millennium. 

It is further to be noticed that Mr. Russell 
teaches here that the members of the little flock 
who are exalted to share the “divine nature’ 
and the divine throne with Jesus go through 
the same experiences that he did. Jesus, so 
he says, sacrificed his human nature in death. 


TEACHINGS OF ““RASTOR’’ RUSSELL 39 


When he was crucified his human nature was 
annihilated, blotted out of \existence. He was 
then raised a divine being and exalted to the 
right hand of the Majesty on high. The mem- 
bers of the little flock go through the same 
kind of experience, except that they begin 
one step lower down—they begin on the plane 
of human depravity, as fallen men, while Je- 
sus began on the plane of human perfection. 
Speaking of Jesus, Mr. Russell says: 
“When he thus presented himself (in bap- 
tism, he is speaking of), consecrated his being, 
his offering was holy (pure) and acceptable 
to God, who showed his acceptance by filling’ 
him with his Spirit and power—when the Holy 
Spirit came upon him, thus anointing him. 
“This filling with the Spirit was the beget- 
ting to a new nature—the divine—which 
should be fully developed or born when he had 
fully accomplished the offering—the sacrifice 
of the human nature. This begetting was a 
step up from human conditions..... On this 
plane Jesus spent three and one-half years 
of his life—until his human existence ended 
on the cross. Then, after being dead three 


40 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


days, he was raised to life’ (p. 230). But we 
must not take this statement of Mr. Russell’s 
to mean that Jesus was raised from the dead in 
the sense in which Christians usually hold that 
doctrine. Mr. Russell holds that the body of 
Jesus did not rise from the dead. It may have 
dissolved in gases (Vol. 2 of “Studies in the 
Scriptures,’ p. 126). The death of Jesus rather 
meant the annihilation of his human nature and 
the resurrection meant that he came to life as a 
divine being. (See the section on the person 
of Christ.) So Mr. Russell says: “Jesus, 
therefore, at and after his resurrection, was a 
spirit—a spirit being, and no longer a hu- 
man being in any sense. True, after his resur- 
rection he had power to appear, and did ap- 
pear, aS a man, in order that he might teach 
his disciples and prove to them that he was no 
longer dead; but he was not a man.... ‘So 
is every one that is born of the Spirit’”’ (p. 
231). 

Following after the example of Jesus we 
too may be begotten of the spirit when we, 
after being justified, fully consecrate our- 
selves to the service of God. Then if we live 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 41 


up to our vow of consecration we will be born 
of the spirit, that is, raised a spirit being in 
the resurrection, and as the final step, may 
be admited to the throne of glory to reign with 
Christ. (In some places, Mr. Russell seems 
to distinguish between spirit and divine na- 
tures. For instance, he’ teaches that Christ 
was a Spirit being before the incarnation, not 
divine. But in chapter XII of Volume 1 in dis- 
cussing the glorification of the “‘little flock,” 
he seems to disregard this distinction.) Set- 
ting forth the idea that we go through the same 
process that Jesus did, Mr. Russell says: “The 
steps of the church to glory are the same as 
those of her leader and Lord, who hath set 
us an example that we should walk in his foot- 
steps—except that the church starts on a lower 
plane’ .(p..23'1): 

Now let us look at a few of the ideas ad- 
vanced by this man who was “the Lord’s spe- 
cial servant to give the Household of Faith 
meat in due season.” (See preface to Vol. 7, 
of “Studies in the Scriptures,’ published by 
some of Mr. Russell’s followers after his 


42 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


death.) He has certainly advanced some 
novel ideas in setting out ‘‘the path to glory.” 

One of these novel ideas is the thought that 
one may be justified without being begotten or 
born of the Spirit. I have heard a good many 
amateur theologians (as well as some not so 
amateurish) discuss the question as to which 
comes first, justification or regeneration, and 
try to settle just the relation of the two. But 
Mr. Russell is the first theologian (?P) I re- 
member to have read after who holds that one 
could be justified without being regenerated. 
Some have said that justification came first, 
and some have said that regeneration came 
first. Mr. Russell says, not only that justifica- 
tion comes first, but that one may go that far 
and stop. Protestant theologians have usually 
said that justification gives one a new standing 
before God and regeneration gives him a new 
nature. But they have also said that justifica- 
tion and regeneration practically took place at 
the same instant in time (whichever might pre- 
cede in the order of logic). But Mr. Russell 
says that one may have the new standing with- 
out ever having the new nature. This “man 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 43 


of great modesty” (preface to Vol. 7) did not 
hesitate to set the whole of\the Christian world 
right on this point, on which according to 
‘‘Pastor” Russell they were \all wrong until he 
appeared as the Lord’s chosen servant to set 
them right. So hear, all ye Protestant theo- 
logians, and learn that yowhave all been wrong 
in thinking that when a sinner was justified 
by the grace of God he was at the same time 
born of the Spirit. What a pity the Lord did 
not raise up this prophet sooner to set us right 
in our theology as to the “order of salvation” 
and “the path to glory’! 

Mr. Russell holds that one may be justified 
and not go any further on “‘the path to glory.” 
In that case God regards him as a son, but 
only a human son, not a spiritual son. Those 
who are justified but go no further Mr. Rus- 
sell says ‘‘are justified but not sanctified. They 
are not fully consecrated to God, and not be- 
gotten, therefore, as spirit beings. They are 
higher than the world, however, because they 
accept of Jesus as their ransom from sin; but 
they have not accepted the high-calling of this 
age to become part of the spiritual family of 


44 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


God. If they continue in faith and fully sub- 
mit to the righteous laws of Christ’s kingdom, 
in the times of restitution, they will finally at- 
tain the likeness of the perfect earthly man, 
Adam. They will completely recover all that 
was lost through him. They will attain the 
same human perfection, mental, moral and 
physical, and will again be in the image of 
God, as Adam was; for to all this they were 
redeemed (p2s0))., 

As compared, then, with those who go on 
in “the path to glory” these justified ones only 
get a poor kind of salvation. They only stand 
a chance (a pretty good chance, to be sure, one 
that scarcely anybody could miss) of becom- 
ing perfect human beings, along with the great 
mass of mankind, during the millennial age. 
In order to make this perfection, according to 
the quotation just given, they must “fully sub- 
mit to the righteous laws of Christ’s kingdom”’ 
(during the millennium) as well as “continue 
in faith’ (meaning perhaps during this life). 
This statement seems to imply that one might 
fall back and lose his standing. 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 45 


Now, I believe I have.made another dis- ~ 
covery. I hesitate somewhat-to announce it, 
for it is rather a serious matter. But to be true 
to the facts I must. My discovery is this: that 
this “‘modest man’? whom God raised up to 
set all the rest of us theologians right knew 
nothing about what the great Apostle Paul 
meant by justification. It looks a little sus- 
picious when Mr. Russell announces a doc- 
trine of justification that is utterly at variance 
with what Protestant theologians have set forth 
with almost unanimous consent. But it looks 
more than suspicious, it gets very serious in 
the eyes of Christians, when he departs funda- 
mentally from the view of Paul; because Chris- 
tians have held that Paul was right. And it 
is quite evident to any one that reads Paul and 
then reads Mr. Russell that Paul means one 
thing by justification and that Mr. Russell 
means an entirely different thing. 

Without going into detail as to Paul’s doc- 
trine of justification, it is enough to say that 
Paul held that justification put a man down in- 
to the very midst of the richest blessings that a 
sinner saved by the grace of God could ever 


46 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


know. Paul did not hold that the justified man ~ 
came immediately into possession of the full- 
ness of all these blessings; but he did hold that 
nothing beyond justification, no subsequent 
transaction based on something other than 
faith in Christ as Redeemer, was necessary 
to put one in possession of the beginning of . 
these blessings. In other words Paul held 
that the faith that justifies makes one a child 
of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ, an 
heir to every blessing that God can conceiv: 
ably bestow on his children. This he sets forth 
in glowing language in Romans 8. Whatever 
spiritual blessing you find in Romans 8 be- 
longs to the justified man on no other condition 
than the faith that justifies. Every thing from 
the ‘‘no condemnation” of the first of the chap- 
ter to the “no separation” of the climax be- 
longs to the sinner justified by faith in Jesus 
Christ. This includes sharing the eternal glory 
of Christ, the highest glory that can come to 
any man born of the Spirit of God. All this 
belongs to him as one justified by faith. 

Put over against this Mr. Russell’s doctrine 
of justification as a transaction that puts one 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 47 


in a relation to God that makes it possible for 
him during some approaching millennial reign 
to recover the position and condition\that be- 
longed to Adam before he fell! Paul Hever 
dreamed that any sinner justified by the | grace 
of God would be put back where Adam was. 
He had something more glorious in mind for 
the justified man than that. It is the difference 
between being a child of God, redeemed by his 
grace, and an Adam under law whose security 
depends on perfect obedience. It is the dif- 
ference between salvation by grace and a poor 
specimen of legalism. It is the difference be- 
tween Paul, an inspired apostle, and Chas. T. 
Russell, whose thoughts are so mechanical and 
materialistic that they rattle like a tin pan. 
Not only does Mr. Russell make this arbi- 
trary and unscriptural separation between jus- 
tification and “spirit begetting’’; he makes an 
equally unfounded separation between “spirit 
begettinge’ and “spirit birth.” There is a 
Greek word used in the New Testament that 
means to beget, but in the passive voice it 
means either to be begotten or to be born. 
This word is used in a spiritual sense in John 


i? 
ye 





ARY OF PRI GE 


NOW 2 9 1932 


48 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


3: 3-8, 1 Peter 3: 9, 1 John 5: 1 and in many- 
other places in the New Testament. The King 
James translators usually translated the word 
to be born. The American revisers sometimes 
translate it to be born, sometimes to be begot- 
ten. This is the regular word in the New Testa- 
ment for the idea of being begotten of the’ 
Spirit or born of the Spirit, and shows how 
utterly unfounded is Mr. Russell’s idea that 
being begotten of the Spirit is one thing taking 
place in this life, and being born of the Spirit 
another thing to take place in the resurrection 
at the beginning of the millennium. This shows 
that Mr. Russell’s confession, when he was 
cornered on the witness stand, that he knew 
nothing about Greek, was a true confession. 
(See a pamphlet by J. J. Ross, “Some Facts 
and More Facts about the Self-styled ‘Pastor’ 
Chas. T. Russell, etc.” ) And it shows that he 
knows very little more about the English Bible, 
for no one would ever get the impression from 
any translation of the Bible in English that be- 
ing begotten of the Spirit is one thing and be- 
ing born of the Spirit something entirely dif- 
ferent, coming in another “age’’ of the world. 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 49 


It is perfectly clear from the.New Testament 
that to be born of the Spirit is-not identical 
with a resurrection to take place in the future; 
it is a present experience, something without 
which we cannot see or enter the kingdom of 
God (John 3: 3-5). Those who believe in the 
name of the Christ, or receive him, are born 
of God now (John 1: 13). 

This reminds us of another of Mr. Russell’s 
errors. He says that to believe in Jesus as our 
ransom brings justification; but to be begotten 
of the Spirit these justified ones must go fur- 
ther and consecrate themselves utterly to God 
and his service. He cites here Romans 12: 1 
(pp. 227, 237). But Paul in that passage 
says nothing about being begotten of the Spirit; 
he is urging those who are born of the Spirit, 
to a life of consecration. He also shows on 
page 233 that to go beyond justification on 
“the path to glory” works are a condition. This 
shows again that in his scheme salvation is 
not by grace and grace alone, but that he brings 
in the idea of works as a meritorious cause of 
salvation. Nothing is further from Mr. Rus- 
sell’s thoughts than the idea of salvation by 
grace through faith. 


50 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


Another one of Mr. Russell’s absurdities is | 
his identifying of consecration to God’s ser- 
vice (as a condition of spirit begetting in his 
scheme) and of devoting one’s human nature 
to destruction or annihilation (pp. 225, 227). 
Mr. Russell teaches that Jesus at his baptism 
devoted his human nature to death or annihila- 
tion. When he died his human nature ceased to 
be; he was raised to a divine being, no longer 
human in any sense. So we may, after justifi- 
cation, devote our human natures to destruc- 
tion, and if we live up to this vow we will in the 
resurrection be made divine beings (p. 196 
et al). 

Now it is true that Jesus talks about our 
denying self and taking up the cross, about 
losing our life to save it. But to interpret this 
as meaning our annihilation as human beings 
and our becoming divine beings shows an utter 
incapacity to understand spiritual experience. 
What Christian in devoting himself to the ser- 
vice of God ever thought of that as meaning 
that he was devoting his human nature to an- 
nihilation and that he would therefore cease to 
be a human being P 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 51 


This idea that Jesus was human only and 
then became divine in the resurrection, and that 
we too may cease to be human beings*and be- 
come divine is one of Mr. Russell’s most, fan- 
tastic doctrines. He holds that those who 
experience this “change of nature’ will become 
‘divine’ and “immortal” in the same sense 
that the risen Christ is or that God is. He in- 
sists that “natures” must be kept distinct and 
that consequently Jesus could not be human 
and divine at the same time. But by his easy 
and arbitrary transition from the human to the 
divine he really breaks down the distinction 
between the human and the divine. Any man 
who believes that man may become divine and 
immortal in the same sense that God is shows 
himself capable of believing any thing. He 
shows that he has no proper conception of 
deity. No wonder that Mr. Russell spoke of 
God in materialistic terms as having a body. 
His whole system is a kind of magical, jump- 
ing jack, “pig or puppy” materialism. 

There is another serious trouble with Mr. 
Russell’s scheme of salvation. That is, it is 
so complicated that it would take a ‘‘Philadel- 


52 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR”? RUSSELL 


phia lawyer” to understand it. I have heard 
people talk about the “plan” of salvation. This 
is more than a plan; it is a scheme. And 
it is a scheme that impresses one with . 
two things. One is that it is meant to 
take all the moral zest and earnestness out of 
the present life. There are several stages or 
degrees of salvation; and if a person misses 
one, he is pretty sure to hit on another. The 
other is that it is meant to compliment the 
cleverness of the author of the scheme. When 
a sinner is saved by the grace of God, or when 
as a Christian he has a deeper experience of the 
love of God that saves, he is apt to say: 
“Thank God for his grace.’’ When one reads 
Mr. Russell’s works, he feels that it was meant 
to make one feel: ‘“‘Isn’t the author of that 
scheme smart?” But a person with any moral 
sense would never think of attributing the 
scheme to God. The cleverness belongs to Mr. 
Russell. His ingenuity in twisting scripture 
passages and making them mean any thing 
to fit in with his scheme is certainly marvelous. 

When I speak of the scheme as difficult to 
understand, I do not mean to say that Mr. 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 53 


Russell's thought is obscure—usually it is not. 
He succeeds in making his thought clear. But 
his scheme is complex. For instance, during 
the millennial age, he has mankind divided up 
into several classes: at the top are those who 
have reached the throne of glory with Christ; 
next are those who failed to reach the throne 
and were made “spirit beings’ only; below 
them are the Israelites restored to human per- 
fection (note that the Jews are above the great 
mass of mankind but are not “divine” or 
‘spirit’ beings—perhaps the best the Lord 
could do with an ordinary Jew. I hope Mr. 
Russell will consent for Moses and Paul at 
least to reach the top); below these are the 
great mass of mankind, being restored to “hu- 
man” perfection; below them (if one could 
speak of any below in that sense) are the in- 
corrigibles, who are blotted out in the second 
death. 

I have heard people talk about ‘“‘degrees”’ in 
heaven, or in rewards, but Mr. Russell has 
nearly as many varieties of salvation as there 
are pickles of a certain brand—almost fifty- 


54 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 


seven varieties. It is quite handy to be able to 
‘‘pay your money and take your choice.”’ 

Not only is the scheme complex in that it 
has so many “degrees” of salvation, but also 
in that it tries to be a plan of redemption based 
on atonement, appropriated by faith, and yet 
constantly runs back to works as a basis. The 
Lord helps a little, but man has a lot to do, 
especially if he gets a high grade of salvation. 
How silly all this is compared with the New | 
Testament view of salvation as the work of a 
God of love whom we can trust completely to 
save ‘to the uttermost” from sin! 

Leaving aside, however, the complexities of 
the scheme, we need to notice that in general 
Mr. Russell has two plans of salvation. One 
that is being carried out during the present age, 
the object of which is to select the “‘bride,” the 
“church,” the “‘little flock,” those who are to be 
exalted to the “divine” nature and the throne 
with Christ—rather with Jesus, the term 
Christ being constantly used by Mr. Russell 
to denote Jesus and those exalted to the throne 
with him. It is this plan that we have been 
considering under the head of ‘“‘salvation 


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TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 55 


offered now.” But there is also the plan that 
has as its object the restoration of the mass of 
mankind to “human perfection,” during the 
millennium. That we have considered in dis- 
cussing “probation and millennial salvation.” 
Perhaps enough was said there about this 
phase of the matter. Taking these two plans 
together we have Mr. Russell’s view with refer- 
ence to salvation. And by the time we get 
through considering the different “‘varieties”’ of 
salvation offered, the conditions to be met in 
each, the racial elements involved, the different 
‘‘ages” when it will all take place, and even the 
possibility (or as Mr. Russell says the cer- 
tainty) that in the testing time at the beginning 
of the millennium some will fall even from the 
highest heights into the abyss of nothingness; 
when one gets through with all this one of the 
main effects is a dizziness in the head and a 
kind of nausea that is any thing but pleasant. 
I am in the habit in teaching theology to say 
to my students that all the credit for salvation 
belongs to God. But I would not charge him 
up with this business. Let Mr. Russell have 
the credit. 


56 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


To top this “doctrine of salvation” is Mr. 
Russell’s dogmatic assurance given the sinner, 
over and over again, that if he completely 
misses salvation, now and during the millen- 
nium, the worst that can happen to him is to 
die, be annihilated, and all his pain and misery 
are over forever. Mark you this is not a doubt 
or a question about eternal or everlasting 
punishment; it is dogmatic teaching affirming 
that there is no such thing. And he backs up 
his system by the copious use (or misuse) of 
scripture. He claims to give the only true 
interpretation of the Bible on the subject. [I 
do not think anybody could find a scheme bet- 
ter calculated to lull the conscience to sleep and 
lure the soul to its eternal destruction. 


5. Person of Christ. 


One of the most distinctive things in Mr. 
Russell’s system is his doctrine of Christ. He 
says that before his earthly life, Christ was a 
spiritual being. Mr. Russell holds that human, 
spiritual and divine natures are distinct. (See 
p. 176.) When he came to earth he became 
human. He and Adam were the only two 


TEACHINGS OF ““PASTOR”’ RUSSELL 57 


perfect men the world ever saw. He had\to be 
human or he could not be man’s substitute. 
There can be no blending of these different 
natures (pp. 178, 179). To blend any two 
of them would mean that they would 
lose their identity and become something else. 
Christ was not originally divine. He was a 
spirit being higher than the angels. In coming 
to earth, he passed by the angels and became 
man. In his death his human nature was sac- 
rificed; it died, was annihilated. As a reward 
for his sacrifice and obedience God gave him 
the divine nature. Christ could be a spirit be- 
ing, and a divine being in succession, but he 
could not be human and divine at the same 
time. He was first, before coming to earth, a 
spirit above man, but lower than God. He 
became a man and lived here among men. He 
then died, ceased to be as a man. Then God 
made him divine. 

Note now some consequences of this: 

(1) Jesus was not divine while in the 
world. During that period he was man and 
man only. 


58 TEACHINGS OF “‘PASTOR’’ RUSSELL 


(2) He is not human now. He is now di- 
vine and divine only. When he died his hu- 
man nature ceased to be. 

(3) There was no incarnation, because 
God and man could not be united inne per- 
son. Christ could be human and divine suc- 
cessively, but not at the same time. 

Orthodox Christianity has always held just 
the opposite on these points. It has held that 
he existed from all eternity as the Son of God 
and creator of all finite things; that Jgsus was 
divine as well as human, while in the world; 
that he is human now and henceforth forever, 
as well as divine; that Jesus was and ig the in- 
carnation of God. 

The ideas of the deity of Christ, of his 
genuine and permanent humanity, of his be- 
ing the incarnation of God—these are not ideas 
incidental in Christianity; they belong to its 
essence. But Mr. Russell denies the possibility 
of anincarnation. According to him deity and 
humanity could not be united in one person. 
If Mr. Russell is right on this point, then God 
has never given any final revelation of him- 
self by taking on himself the form and nature 


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TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 59 


of man in Jesus Christ. Paul and John, be- 
lieved in a genuine incarnation of God. ‘To 
them Jesus was the eternal Son of God, be- 
come man for the salvation of men. (See | 
John 1: 1, 14; Phil. 2: 5ff, and many other 
passages.) If Paul and John were right, Mr. 
Russell was wrong. 

Moreover, if Jesus was not divine, then his 
suffering and death did not represent divine 
love and sacrifice for the salvation of men. The 
very essence of Christianity is that Christ's 
cross expresses and reveals the sacrificial love 
of God for the salvation of sinful men. God 
so loved that he gave his Son. But if Jesus 
was not divine, there was no divine sacrifice 
in his death. And if there was no divine sac- 
rifice, then salvation is nothing more than a 
scheme of human effort at self-improvement. 
As a matter of fact, Mr. Russell teaches that 
Jesus died only as a man. So he denies that 
the death of Jesus represented any divine suf- 
fering for the salvation of man. Jesus died as 
a man, and died in the sense that his human 
nature was blotted out of existence, was anni- 
hilated. 


60 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


Again, Mr. Russell’s idea that a spirit being 
is displaced by a human and that then the hu- 
man is blotted out and a divine being takes his 
place—this idea destroys all personal continu- 
ity in Christ. The idea, as held by Christianity 
and denied by Mr. Russell, that the eternal 
Son of God became man for our salvation, took 
on him our lot and nature—this idea may be, 
yea is, mysterious. But it does leave room for 
personal continuity. Christ was the eternal 
Son of God. When he became man he did 
not cease to be divine. Nor did he cease to be 
human when he sat down at the right hand of 
God. He is the permanent union of God and 
man. Here is a problem for thought truly, one 
that challenges the best in us. But Mr. Rus- 
sell’s idea that one kind of being could be sub- 
stituted for another—a human being for a 
spirit being, and a divine being for a human 
being—his mere assertion that such a thing 
took place, unsupported by facts or even argu- 
ment—this we can only consider amusing in- 
genuity in the handling of terms, not an effort 
at serious thought. (On this point see especi- 
ally Chapter X of Volume 1 of “Studies in the 
Scriptures. ’’ ) 


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TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSS LL 61 


(NoTE—Mr. Russell holds that both\God 
and Jesus have bodies of some kind. He says 
that we cannot imagine them without bodies. 
This looks very much like materialism (p. 
200). His God seems to be only a magnified 
man, p. 201.) 


6. The Kingdom. 


In an initial way Mr. Russell recognizes the 
kingdom as already in existence (pp. 282- 
284). This preparatory stage of the kingdom 
he identifies with the church (not organized 
Christianity, but perhaps the “‘little flock’). 
The kingdom, however, will not be set up in 
power until the return of Christ. Christ re- 
turns to judge (rule) mankind (p. 283). 

At first there will probably be opposition to 
the rule of Christ, but this opposition will be 
put down by force, and when men have seen 
enough of it to recognize its beneficent results 
they will willingly submit to it. There will be 
great revolutions and times of trouble at the 
ushering in of the millennial reign in which ex- 
isting governments and the existing social and 
industrial order will be overthrown preparatory 


62 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


to the new order. God is during the present 
order allowing man to govern himself, but his 
effort to do so will end in complete failure. 
Hence the necessity of the divine rule. 

There will be two aspects of this millennial 
kingdom—one visible, the other invisible. The 
visible aspect will be administered by those 
who have been saved to the plane of human 
perfection during the Jewish age. They will 
be the visible agents of the divine administra- 
tion. It will be pretty largely, if not entirely, 
a Jewish order of things (pp. 289, 290, 294). 

The invisible phase of the kingdom will be 
administered by those who have been saved 
during the gospel age to the divine plane of 
being. They will be crowned the real rulers of 
the kingdom. It seems that the visible human 
administrators will be under the direction of 
these invisible divine rulers (p. 288). 


7. Some Criticisms. 


In brief, we point out a few general criti- 
cisms, in addition to what has already been 
said: 


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TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 63 


(1) In the first place, we charge that\the 
whole system is devoid of moral depth and 
earnestness. One is impressed that Mr. Rus- 
sell’s plan of the ages is a cleverly worked out 
scheme, but its cleverness is its chief attrac- 
tiveness. One feels that the kind of God that 
Mr. Russell presents is primarily a God of 
scheming cleverness. It is true that Mr. Rus- 
sell talks about the justice and love of God, 
but the scheme of doctrine does not allow any 
place for the reality corresponding to these 
terms. The idea of sin is that it is a misfor- 
tune into which God allowed men to fall in 
order that they might learn a useful lesson. 
All meaning is taken out of the present life so 
far as a moral probation is concerned. The 
only real probation for most men is to come 
in the next age. Mr. Russell emphasizes the 
sin of Adam and its effect, and also the coming 
millennial age and its probation, but lays no 
emphasis whatever on the present life and its 
moral responsibility. Any doctrine of Adam’s 
sin that relieves man of present moral respon- 
sibility is somehow out of joint with the New 
Testament and moral reality. The same thing 


64 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


might be said concerning any doctrine of the 
millennium that takes off the Christian the 
pressure of responsibility to take the gospel 
to every man on earth and press home on that 
man the claims of Christ. 

(2) Asasecond criticism, then, there is no © 
missionary motive or dynamic in Russellism. 
The present age is not an age of salvation, is 
not meant to be, for the masses of mankind. 
World-wide missionary operations are to be 
postponed until the millennium. Mr. Russell 
once made a trip around the world. He came 
back and published a lot of disparaging state- 
ments about the work being done on the for- 
eign mission fields, which he had presumably 
investigated. But when Mr. W. T. Ellis in- 
vestigated Mr. Russell’s trip it was found that 
he had really met perhaps two missionaries on 
the trip, had visited no missions, was really 
gone one hundred and sixteen days, having left 
San Francisco on December 3 and landed in > 
New York on March 28, most of the one hun- 
dred and sixteen days having been spent on 
board his ship. Certainly the world ought to © 
listen to such a first-hand authority on 


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TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 65 


missions as that! (See “All About One Rus- 
sell,’ a pamphlet published by Charles) C. 
Cook, New York.) 

(3) Mr. Russell plainly discourages the 
idea of Christians having anything to do with 
civic, social or industrial reforms. The pres- 
ent age has been turned over to the control 
of Satan. God is now allowing man to try 
himself out to see if he can govern himself. 
His efforts are doomed to failure. The only 
hope for the world is in the establishment of 
a totally different order of things under Christ 
as king and mankind as the passive subjects. 
The whole scheme discourages an aggressive 
type of Christianity for the moral and spiritual 
uplift of humanity. It reminds one of media- 
eval monasticism in its despairing other-world- 
liness and lack of moral and social dynamic 
(p. 342). Christians believe in supernatural- 
ism in religion, but not in a supernaturalism 
that denies all present reality to moral responsi- 
’ bility and makes us passively wait for a ready- 
made, perfected social order to be let down out 
of the skies sometime in the future. 


66 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


(4) The novelty of Mr. Russell’s view is 
‘ against it. His position amounted to saying 
that a correct interpretation of the Bible had . 
never before been known. So far as I know 
some features of his view had never been set 
forth by anybody else—his theory, for in- 
Stance, that members of the “‘little flock,” the 
‘bride of Christ,’ are changed from human 
into divine beings, while those saved during 
the millennium only attain to human perfec- 
tion. 

Here then is a man coming on the scene 
nearly two thousand years after Christ lived 
~ and died and saying in substance: “Nobody 
before me has ever understood the Bible. I, 
at last, have found the key to its true inter- 
pretation.’”’ What does such a claim amount 
to? It amounts to saying that there has been 
practically no true Christianity in the world 
for centuries, possibly not since the New Testa- 
ment age. This is almost equal to claiming 
that God has given Mr. Russell a new revela- 
tion. While Mr. Russell did not put the mat- 
ter that way, as Mrs. Eddy and Joseph Smith 
did, it practically amounts to that. (See for 


TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 67 


instance his claim, as C. C. Cook sets it forth 
in the pamphlet above referred to. He claimed 
that a person could get along better with his 
“Studies in the Scriptures” without the Bible 
than he could with the Bible without his 
“Studies” to guide him in understanding the 
Bible. That comes perilously near putting his 
Studies above the Bible.) For if nobody has 
understood the Bible until Mr. Russell ap- 
peared on the scene to interpret it for us, then 
we have been practically without a revelation 
from God. The world was full of electricity 
before the days of Benjamin Franklin, but 
Franklin opened a new era in the understand- 
ing and control of electricity. _So, according 
to Mr. Russell, we had the Bible before he ap- 
peared, but nobody understood it. He gave 
us the key to its proper interpretation. 

But is it reasonable that, after completing 
the revelation recorded in the Bible, God left 
the world for nearly 2,000 years without any- 
body that understood it? Such a claim is an 
astounding claim to make, and certainly we 
would need some very clear and positive evi- 
dences before accepting such a conclusion. 


68 TEACHINGS OF “PASTOR” RUSSELL 


Such evidences Mr. Russell has not given. He 
has given us nothing except his own unsup- 
ported and unreasonable assertions. Surely it 
did not take the Lord, after giving a revelation, 
2,000 years to produce a man who could un- 
derstand that revelation. 





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